Presidential Spokesperson George Chararamba has confirmed Robert Mugabe has been rejected by several African presidents as earlier revealed by ZimEye.com (READ MORE- Sick Mugabe set to be Blocked from taking African Union Top Job.)
In an interview with the State Media, Charamba indicated Zimbabwe is set to be shocked on Friday when the African Union choice for the chairmanship is to be announced. He blamed the development on western sanctions.
Below was Charamba’s interview with Herald Editor, Caesar Zvayi:
Q: What is the relationship between Zimbabwe, in its campaign and the rest of African member states for this post?
A: The logic of chairmanship of the AU is rotational, what is certain is that the chairmanship has to go to Southern Africa, what is uncertain is which country in Southern Africa is going to take it. What we are fighting for is to make sure that Zimbabwe becomes that country which takes that chairmanship.
So really in terms of regions, the whole campaign was to try and make sure that there is consensus that ecowas endorses us, the East African Community endorses us, sadc endorses us — as indeed it has done — as and then of course the Maghreb region also does the same.
Really given the nature and character of the President I do not see him wanting to be a controversial chairman, in the sense of being a chairman who chairs by minority or by a slim majority. He wants to build that consensual position which, therefore, makes his chairmanship not just solid but also enough to generate a certain momentum which makes it continental, that is basically the intention.
You want to bear in mind that the President has for a long time been complaining about the trajectory of the AU. He thinks that for a long time we have been kowtowing to western interests, he thinks we have been trying as it were bending our policies so as to win the goodwill of the West
He thinks we have not been recognising that by virtue of commanding, maybe three quarters of the world resources that is clout enough, that gives us tremendous leverage in our interaction with the West. What the President visualises is a leadership that recognises the strategic advantage of Africa and then translates that strategic advantage into a leadership bid on the global stage.
So that is basically the change that you will see when the President takes over or if the President takes over, which we hope he will.
Q: We are reliably informed that western countries are trying to shoot down on the basis that Zimbabwe is on sanctions?
A: That exactly is my problem with the West; they don’t interrogate the sense behind the sanctions. They move instead from unilateral sanctions as a fact to trying to make it a precondition for election and I think Africa is understanding enough to know that you can’t start from the premise of an illegality, which is what the sanctions are, we will start from the premise of the leadership that Africa requires to tackle those problems including the sanctions on Zimbabwe. These are not UN sanctions, so no one in the west can have the moral status of starting an argument on sanctions as if the sanctions are legitimate in the first place. But you and me must know that we must always budget for that opposition from the West.
Q: What have we done to counter the western moves?
A: We have done that already, this is why we are optimistic of the result. As before in SADCC they were trying to oppose us and we trounced them, and hey we feel pity for them, they are destined for grief in this matter.
Q: Turning to the ADB, we understand we have some of them in the delegation?
A: Zimbabwe has produced a candidate for sadc and please get me right, this is not a Zimbabwean candidate only, this is a sadc candidate, and essentially what we are trying to do is to provide leadership to that critical bank on the African continent.
We are a member, we have been contributing diligently and we have also drawn from the resources of ADB, and it is only natural that when an opportunity presents itself, we go for it, and we have a well experienced candidate, 36 years of banking experience.
And I hear he also taught the current governor of the Reserve Bank, and he is not just a competent banker, he is also a producer of bankers.
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